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Madhav Lavakare

Transcribe

Cohort: Aug 2018, IndiaAge: 17Location: Delhi NCRDomain: Inclusion

A low-cost assistive device to help the hearing impaired.

The Problem

A majority of people in the hearing impaired community are unable to afford the expensive technology to help them, and very few hearing enabled people to understand sign language, making it very difficult for the community to interact with others. Madhav’s mission is to provide the hearing impaired community with an affordable and accessible way to bridge the communication gap and improve their quality of life.

The Solution

Transcribe is an affordable wearable smart glass device that converts speech to text real-time and displays it on a transparent heads-up display to enable one-way communication between an able person and someone with hearing impairment. Transcribe works as a real-time captioning system for people who are at different levels of hearing impairment. Transcribe, one of the only Heads-Up Display solutions for the hearing-impaired is an affordable, scalable, and inclusive innovation that is aimed at providing accessibility and promoting growth through inclusive innovation.

The Venture

Through partnerships with multiple NGOs working with the Deaf community, he was able to understand the needs of the community and came up with a better iteration of the gasses (patent pending). He followed a rigorous user-oriented design process. Madhav has created a focus group of core users and early adopters from within the Deaf community who function as a part of his team.

The Changemaker

Madhav Lavakare is a 17-year-old high schooler from New Delhi. He’s an avid tinkerer and hacker who has always been fond of building quirky new gadgets ever since he was 6 years old. He has a keen eye for solving real-world problems and is passionate about using technology to promote greater inclusion.